From another Book of Irenæus the Compiler On matter being not originate.
Since1 certain, moved I know not whence, take away the creative power of God up to2 the half, saying that He is the cause only of the quality of matter3, saying that matter itself is inoriginate, come let us ask them what … [here a line has been half cut away at the top of the page in the Ms.] immutable. Matter therefore is immutable. If matter be immutable, and the immutable does not change its quality, the world is not created of it. Whence4 it appears to them a thing redundant that God should impose qualities on matter, seeing that matter is not recipient of change, being inoriginate. Again if matter be inoriginate, it hath full surely been endowed5 with a certain quality and that immutable, it will not be recipient of further qualities, nor will the world have been made of it; and if the world be not made of it, it puts God utterly outside of creating6.
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c Massuet printed this (p. 348) out of the Bodleian Ms. Misc. 20, [olim 3011,] fol. 378. ↩
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d In the Greek as printed διʼ is a mistake for ἐ ξ . ↩
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e περ ὶ βλην ought to be περ ὶ τ ὴ ν ὅ λην . ↩
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f διʼ again is printed in the Edd. for δξ and at the end of the sentence, the paper being worn, κατʼ α ὐ τ ῆ ς , not κατʼ α ὐ τ ὴ ν (Mr. Coxe kindly tells me) is the real reading of the Ms. ↩
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g πεποίαται , qualitied , has been misprinted in the Editions πεποίνται . ↩
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h Compare fragment vi, which may possibly belong to this same work. ↩